Everyday life in the sandhills of Nebraska: travel, writing, Husker football, Husker volleyball, and farming.
Living in the middle of nowhere and loving every minute of it.

Thursday, June 12, 2008

Weird holidays - June 10

There's only one reason to celebrate today: the ball point pen day. I know I couldn't survive without them, although I think I probably have some form of OCD because the pen has to feel right in my hand or I search until I find the right writing utensil. My mother would argue that it has to do with my office supplies fetish, but that's simply not true! :) You can never have too many notebooks, legal pads, or fine quality pens. Trust me!

I imagine most people think the ball point was invented in the U.S., and to an extent, that is true. In 1888, an American leathermaker patented a utensil that marked leather, but this pen was never put into production. In 1935, two Hungarian brothers - Ladislas and Georg Biro - were printers and devised a better version of the ball point pen. A very interesting history of their journey, which includes fleeing to Argentina during World War II, examines the details.